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Category: Prison conditions

81 more Arthur Road inmates test positive

81 more Arthur Road inmates test positive


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Hindu / by Gautam S. Mengle and Sonam Saigal

One positive at Byculla women’s jail.
As many as 81 more inmates at the Arthur Road Central Jail tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the number of cases among prisoners lodged there to 158. A prisoner at the women’s prison in Byculla has also tested positive.
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SUPERINTENDENT OF ARTHUR ROAD JAIN IN QUARANTINE

09/04/2020

Mumbai Mirror / by Somendra Sharma and David Delima

… Families of prisoners and undertrials in jails across the city made frantic calls to their lawyers on Friday morning, after hearing the news that 103 people lodged at Arthur Road jail had tested positive for Covid-19 …
“I have not spoken to my father properly since February, when I last saw him in court. I don’t know if he is safe as there as been zero communication from the authorities. We have no way of getting in touch with any official,” said Sagar Gonsalves, son of incarcerated activist Vernon Gonsalves.
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103 TEST COVID-19 POSITIVE IN MUMBAI’S ARTHUR ROAD JAIL

07/04/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

The Maharashtra home department had promised to release over 11,000 prisoners but so far fewer than 7,000 have been released as the health crisis rages.
Mumbai: The delay in the process of decongesting Maharashtra’s prisons has already led to the first major outbreak of COVID-19 in Mumbai’s Arthur Road central prison.
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Maharashtra Women Prisons Hit Hard, Safety of Children a Prime Concern

Maharashtra Women Prisons Hit Hard, Safety of Children a Prime Concern

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

With a woman inmate testing positive for coronavirus at Byculla prison, a look at the rise in cases in Maharashtra’s overcrowded state prisons.
Mumbai: Contrary to the claims made by the Maharashtra home and prisons department that utmost care has been taken to save prisons from COVID-19 outbreak, cases of infection have been on the rise in state prisons.
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BYCULLA JAIL INMATE TESTS POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS

Indiatoday / by Saurabh Vaktania

A woman has tested positive for novel coronavirus in Byculla women’s jail in Mumbai. The patient, a 54-year-old inmate, tested positive on Saturday.
A 54-year-old inmate of the Byculla women’s jail tested positive for novel coronavirus, officials said on Sunday. The new case of coronavirus from the central Mumbai jail comes two days after a doctor attached to it tested positive for Covid-19.
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Why Activists Want Prisons Decontested

Why Activists Want Prisons Decontested

Newsclick / by Subhash Gatade

The Supreme Court also wants to reduce the Covid-19 risks posed by overcrowded jails, but there is little progress so far.
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COVID Treat in Jails Is Real,
Ailing Inmates Must Be Released Now

The Quint / by People’s Union for Democratcic Rights

PUDR expresses apprehensions over the health status of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha who surrendered before the NIA in Mumbai and Delhi respectively on 14 April 2020. Both are implicated in the Bhima Koregaon case of January 2018 in which eleven human rights defenders have been arrested.
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Vernon Gonsalves has to spend his birthday once more in a prison cell

Vernon Gonsalves has to spend his birthday once more in a prison cell

By Sagar Abraham-Gonsalves / Documented by Mumbai Rises To Save Democracy

22. April
It is my father’s birthday today. He turns 63. Due to the brutality of our government and the failure of our judiciary he will be spending his birthday in a prison cell. At the time of a serious global pandemic when he falls in the category of people most vulnerable he will be spending his birthday in an overcrowded prison with no adequate health facilities.
Today I thought of sharing a about how he has been spending his time in the the past year and a half in Yerwada prison, Pune.
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Koel Sen Pleads For Her Mother’s Release From Jail During A Pandemic

Koel Sen Pleads For Her Mother’s Release From Jail During A Pandemic

Amnesty International India / by Koel Sen

The last time I met my mother – Professor Shoma Sen, was on 29 February 2020 at the Byculla District Jail in Mumbai for 15 minutes. All meetings at the jail have been cancelled in the wake of the nation-wide lockdown announced from 25 March 2020. On Sunday, 5 April 2020, many heeded the Prime Minister’s call to light candles and show solidarity against the novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, some of us, families of the Bhima Koregaon arrestees, remained in the dark about the future of our loved ones.
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How 2-minute Phone Call Keeps Jailed Activists In Touch With Families

How 2-minute Phone Call Keeps Jailed Activists In Touch With Families


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Outlook / by Preetha Nair

Why is the Maharashtra government sitting on the Supreme Court order? Are they waiting for people to die in prison? ask kin of activists.
It had over a month since jailed activist Varavara Rao’s family had heard from him. They were anxious and desperate to know how the 80-year-old poet-activist-journalist, who has been languishing in prison for alleged links to Maoists, was doing.
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2-Min Phone Calls To Family For Jailed Bhima Koregaon Activists

2-Min Phone Calls To Family For Jailed Bhima Koregaon Activists

Huffpost / by Piyasree Dasgupta

The national lockdown enforced due to the coronavirus outbreak has prevented the families from meeting the imprisoned activists.
A couple of weeks ago, Koel Sen received a call from a constable at the Byculla Jail in Mumbai, informing her that the facility to meet prisoners would be suspended soon, in view of the coronavirus outbreak in India.
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Release Those Charged Under Serious Offences – 130 Lawyers Make Recommendations [Read Letter]

Release Those Charged Under Serious Offences – 130 Lawyers Make Recommendations [Read Letter]

livelaw.in / by Nitish Kashyap

A total of 130 lawyers have written to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, State Home Minister and Chief Justice of Bombay High Court expressing grave concern regarding the safety of “thousands of individuals incarcerated in prisons and other settings of detention such as observation homes, special homes, children homes, detention centers, borstal homes, etc” in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic.
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MHARASHTRA PRISONERS RELEASED SAYS JAIL UNPREPARED TO HANDLE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

31/01/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

No transport has been arranged for those who are released, while inmates still in prison fear for their health.
Mumbai: Even as the Maharashtra state government has slowly begun releasing incarcerated persons on parole and interim bail as a safeguard against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, fear and desperation has gripped those languishing in the jail.
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Activists seek bail for political prisoners

Activists seek bail for political prisoners

The Hindu / by Staff Reporter

“COVID-19 outbreak an occasion to look at overcrowded prisons in country.”
A group of activists and intellectuals has sought bail or parole for political prisoners lodged in various jails.
In a letter to the Central and State governments, eminent persons such as writers Arundhati Roy, K. Satchidanandan and Meena Kandasamy, journalist B.R.P. Bhaskar and academics Dilip Menon and Benjamin Zachariah pointed out that the COVID-19 outbreak was also an occasion to look at the overcrowded prisons in the country.
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INTELLECTUALS APPEAL FOR RELEASE OF PRISONERS

30/03/2020

Kashimr Times / by KT News Service

New Delhi: About two dozen intellectuals, writers and academics of the country have made an urgent appeal to the government to ease the over-crowded prisons in view of the outbreak of Covid19 and also in keeping with the recent Supreme Court directive. They have sought release on bail or parole of at least some of the prisoners including political detenues from across the country.
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ACADEMICS SEND OPEN LETTER SEEKING BAIL FOR VARAVARA RAO, SUDHA BHARADWAJ

31/03/2020

The New Indian Express / by Prajanma Das

The Supreme Court has already directed the state governments to consider granting bail to remand prisoners, accused of committing crimes punishable with a maximum of seven years imprisonment.
Former Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba, Poet Varavara Rao, Dr Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj and several others including Padma and Veeramony in Tamil Nadu are in prison — either awaiting trial or are political prisoners of the state.
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Letters from jail: Elgaar Parishad detainees pen thoughts and experiences

Letters from jail: Elgaar Parishad detainees pen thoughts and experiences

Paintings by Arun Ferreira

The Indian Express / by Seema Chishti

The letters, which The Indian Express has access to, reveal a slice of their lives behind bars. Some talk about when they can possibly see the gallows, some are abstract ruminations on life and freedom, while some dwell on the circumstances of their arrest and merits of the case.
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